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OAS to Support the Chilean Congress in the Second Meeting of Presidents of Legislatures in Santiago on July 18

The Organization of American States (OAS) will support the Pro-Transparency Commission of the Congress of Chile in the organization of the Second Inter-American Meeting of Presidents of Legislatures, Parliamentary Forums and Integration Parliaments, to be held on July 18 in Santiago, Chile.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed today at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, between the hemispheric Organization and the Chilean Parliament provides for a specific framework for cooperation in the Forum, and specifically commits the OAS to support the dissemination and promotion of the Declaration of Santiago on the transparency and integrity of legislatures and political parties, signed by participants in the seminar on the subject organized in January 2012 by the Chilean Congress. The first meeting of parliamentary presidents was held in Lima last year.

The OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, highlighted the collaborative initiatives undertaken by the congresses of the hemisphere, and as an example cited the creation of the Network for Legislative Transparency and Integrity, created during the same seminar in Santiago. The head of the hemispheric Organization asserted that "more than ever before the legislative bodies in the region have made efforts to improve their representative relationship with citizens to find better paths to transparency, disclosure and integrity to bring them closer to citizens."

The leader of the hemispheric Organization said that the meeting of parliamentary presidents in Chile will continue working on the creation of networks of trust between the legislative representatives and citizens. "The issue of trust has been debated in many countries in the region in recent years, especially due to the natural difficulties in communicating properly with organized civil society," he said.

Secretary General also said that the intent of the OAS in accompanying the Second Meeting of Legislative Presidents, is to help develop "concrete proposals to bring citizens closer to their governments and parliaments."

The Chair of the Pro-Transparency Commission of the Congress of Chile, Hernán Larraín, emphasized the role of the OAS as a forum that incorporates congresses of the hemisphere with great effectiveness. "Having an axis to strengthen transparency, integrity and parliamentary probity is greatly needed," he said.

The Chilean Senator said that in the countries of the region there is a growing public distrust of the political world, "which leads us to review our procedures and our commitments to the public, so that we are capable of responding to their needs in an open and transparent way." "We need to move from a culture of secrecy to a culture of transparency," he added.

Meanwhile, the first Vice President of the House of Representatives of Chile, Patricio Vallespin Lopez, said the forum that brings together the presidents of the legislatures of the region should be institutionalized. "We have to do so in order to address important issues for our Hemisphere such as transparency and accountability, and sustainable development," he said.

Regarding the opening of institutions to citizens, Vallespin said it is essential, because "people must feel that their representatives are those who are really going to solve the problems of their daily lives." With regard to sustainable development, the legislator said that the aim should be that "citizens can feel and see how this hemisphere can achieve better living conditions for our peoples."

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video news of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-155/15